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I Capture the Castle
Samuel Goldwyn Films


9.0

based on 29 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 5 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie

FILM:

Ice Princess

MPAA RATING: R for brief nudity

Starring Romola Garai, Rose Byrne, Henry Thomas, Marc Blucas, Bill Nighy, Tara Fitzgerald, Sinéad Cusack, and Henry Cavill

A classic English story told in a fresh, vivacious style by the teenage heroine of the piece. (Samuel Goldwyn Films)

GENRE(S):	Romance
WRITTEN BY:	Heidi Thomas Dodie Smith (novel)
DIRECTED BY:	Tim Fywell
RELEASE DATE:	DVD: December 23, 2003 Video: December 23, 2003 Theatrical: July 11, 2003
RUNNING TIME:	113 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	UK

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

Dallas Observer Gregory Weinkauf

Funny, sad, moving and, above all, astute, making I Capture the Castle a fabulous film. Even the cars are tasty.

Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan

It's a rich, emotional story, a wonderfully appealing film made with humor and intelligence, but there is also something almost magical about how it takes the stuff of innumerable previous films -- love, romance and adolescent coming of age -- and turns them into something that feels one of a kind.

Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow

Screwball farce, romance, domestic tragicomedy and literary frolic rolled into one.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

We like these people, which is important, and we are amused by them, which is helpful, but most of all we envy them, because they negotiate their romantic perplexities with such dash and style.

Washington Post Stephen Hunter

The psychological darkness that underpins this film doesn't seem inappropriate to its wit and charm, but rather amplifies it, makes it more real.

LA Weekly Chuck Wilson

Wise and moving.

Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington

Smith's story is a charmer: touching, funny, romantic, perceptive, absorbing and full of color and character. And the movie, which has been respectfully and affectionately handled by people who obviously love their source, captures most of those qualities.

Premiere Peter Debruge

What isn't fair is the film's R rating, which makes this charming coming-of-age tale virtually inaccessible to the audience sure to cherish it most.

Boston Globe Wesley Morris

If there's true magic to be found in the proceedings, it's in Garai's dexterous performance.

San Francisco Chronicle Carla Meyer

A delightful coming-of-age movie that teeters on contrivance but never topples.

Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt

It's surprising no filmmaker has adapted Dodie Smith's novel before now, and pleasing that Mr. Fywell and company have done such a responsible job with it. It's one of the season's most captivating surprises.

Variety Andy Klein

Fywell has transformed this autobiographical novel into a perceptive, wholly engaging drama, infusing the proceedings with a light tone that almost qualifies the film as a comedy, yet never loses sight of the unpredictability of human emotions.

The New York Times Dana Stevens

The evident affection that the filmmakers bear toward Smith's novel, and toward the odd, spirited people who inhabit it, gives the film a modest, hardworking appeal.

Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek

May not be a very grand picture, but it's a gently satisfying one. And if it brings Smith's book just a few hundred more readers, it's admirably done its job.

Austin Chronicle Kimberley Jones

Falling in love with the wrong person makes for a far more toothsome melodrama, a fact this small, satisfying picture rightly recognizes.

Portland Oregonian Kim Morgan

There's something refreshingly and truly girlish about the picture's musings and epiphanies that makes its R rating baffling.

Philadelphia Inquirer Carrie Rickey

Sadly too often (and I'm unsure whether this is the result of voices that echo when bounced off stone walls or because the acting is all over the place), the characters create the impression that English is their second language.

New York Daily News Jami Bernard

A Jane Austen-like tale of sense and sensibility, with some of the wit, but, alas, none of the linguistic legerdemain.

TV Guide Maitland McDonagh

Smith's beautifully observed story of two young women learning how cruel and calculating the world -- and they -- can be is beautifully realized, and Garai stands out among a fine ensemble cast.

Film Threat Rich Cline

Nighy is superb as usual in a much meatier role than even he usually gets. And Byrne makes her character far more three-dimensional than the shallow creature she could have been.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer Sean Axmaker

The boys and girls are so busy acting out their romantic fantasies or soulfully pining over impossible loves that, however photogenic they may be, they never seem to actually live their lives.

Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum

Smith's book is a charmer, but the keys to this ''Castle'' have been misplaced.

Village Voice Jessica Winter

Sweet and sleepy, I Capture the Castle might feel most comfortable in a Sunday-afternoon slot on the BBC.

New York Post Megan Lehmann

Makes its biggest misstep in failing to persuade the viewer the five family members are charming eccentrics rather than irritating weirdos.

Miami Herald Connie Ogle

The film is weighted down by a dour sensibility at odds with the book's insouciant charm.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Ray Conlogue

It is, alas, très twee. A muchness of silliness. Beautifully filmed silliness, and fetchingly acted tweeness. But give me Cruella de Vil any time.

Chicago Reader J.R. Jones

An overloaded script by Heidi Thomas... defeats a fine cast

Washington Post Desson Thomson

Could have been a sensation if a director with a smidgen of moviemaking instinct had taken the helm.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Nathan Rabin

Garai's flowery, overwritten narration proves irritating in the movie's first half, then unfortunately sets the tone for a fatal second-half descent into soap operatics, dippy dialogue, and airless melodrama.

The average user rating for this movie is 9.0 (out of 10) based on 5 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Maggie M. gave it a 9:
I'm american and I loved it.

Chad S. gave it an 8:
Coming-of-age stories about teenage girls, especially ones with voice-overs can be painful to watch, unless you have a compulsively watchable lead like Romola Garai. If Garai failed to carry the movie, we'd pine for more scenes about the agony of writer's block, and more Tara Fitzgerald. The eccentricities of artists, both tortured(Nighy) and flourishing(Fitzgerald) could've been terrific fun. The biggest laughs in the film belong to Fitzgerald's public nudity.

The Perfect World Of Gilbert Mulroneycakes gave it an 8:
What the bloody hell is Riley bloody Finn doing here? He's supposed to be out fighting demons, marrying tall curvaceous blondes, and generally being a meathead! Sorry, sorry. Back to the real world it is then. Not a bad little venture, this. Not the deepest thing in the whole wide world, but feel the width of that cast. Well, us Brits know them all: Romola Garai (what kind of a name is that?) is coming along in leaps and bounds, Bill Nighy has cornered the market in that sort of thing, and it's just nice to see Tara FitzGerald (capital G very important, apparently) working again, for several reasons that I really don't want to elaborate. Of course, there's a good chance that you Americans will be irritated by the whimsy and all-round Englishness. But that's your fault, not the film's.

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I Capture the Castle Samuel Goldwyn Films

I Capture the Castle
Samuel Goldwyn Films